While this news is a bit unusual, it seems the head of Universal Orlando was having an open Q&A lunch session with his staff a few weeks ago when he was asked if Universal had any plans to pursue either the Harry Potter franchise or Lord of the Rings for possible future park projects. Bob Gault’s answer was that “Disney has Harry Potter wrapped up” and that Universal was instead checking into Lord of the Rings. This could be big news for the parks, though Disney did already buy the broadcast rights to the first Harry Potter film for ABC.

Well, seeing as it is directly related to MGM, this post is very much on topic. No, I'm not bringing up the whole "harry potter ride" idea, or the 'who owns potter' idea.....

As I said in my previous post, I meandered over to MGM tonight for the 4th festivities. They had *many* characters out, and it was pretty crowded, but not as crazy as I thought it would be. ANYWAY...

The 'ambience' music was much louder this evening (well, from approx. 5 p.m. onward), and the music was all the stuff you usually get at MGM - disney tunes (even a couple movie tunes from Aladdin and Little Mermaid), and the "old-time" swing-type music. BUT... here's the kicker.... at some point (maybe around 6:30, 7:00 or so) this instrumental music starts up..... three notes into it my brain goes "HOLY MONKEY, they're playing the theme song to the Harry Potter movies!" And just as soon as that thought crossed my mind, I heard *at least* ten kids go "HARRY POTTER!"

Like I said, I'm not bringing up any previous discussions - I just thought this was, well, real neat to hear at MGM. (as it is, I am as big a HP fan as I am of Disney) It simply made me smile, and wanted to share this little moment with all of you.

I can't see how Disney could do an attraction with Harry Potter.....doesn't Warner Bros. own the film and merchandising rights to HP?(WB has a deal with Six Flags to create attractions at those parks.) And would Mrs Rowling approve of such a project?